


The Third Deadly Sin

by hummerhouse



Series: Short Stories and Novellas [10]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Complete, Explicit Language, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-01
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-21 14:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1552985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummerhouse/pseuds/hummerhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Disclaimer: The TMNT are not mine. No money being made.<br/>Story Word Count: 14,938 Short story<br/>Rated: PG-13 to R language, gore<br/>Summary: April has purchased an antique, but the seller has disappeared. Casey asks the gang to help him retrieve April's purchase from an old abandoned house. Too bad antiques aren't the only thing inside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

            Four turtle brothers and their human friend perched atop a building in an aging residential neighborhood in New York City.

            Up and down the street were indicators that the area was about to undergo a transformation; several buildings had already been removed, leaving empty grass lots.  Still others were destined for demolition, including the one they were currently studying.

            The aging brownstone mansion was covered in archaic stonework, the once beautiful and unique artistry now crumbling into ruins.  The sidewalk leading to the front steps was jagged and uneven; the areaway in front of the stairs that lead down to the basement was blocked with debris.

            A security fence had been erected around the structure to keep the curious, the homeless, and the mischievous out of the dangerous interior.  It was no doubt in as much disrepair as the exterior, and therefore wrought with hazards.

            “Well, it certainly _looks_ haunted,” Mikey said as he eyed the triple story structure.

            “I’m sure it is, Mikey,” Don said with a straight face.  “There’s probably a ghost in every room.”

            “I saw a movie once where there was a ghost in every room of an old house dude,” Mikey said, his eyes wide.  “They weren’t friendly either.”

            “Can it, Mikey,” Raph snapped.  “There ain’t any ghosts.”

            “Then how did that rumor get started?” Mikey asked.  “Hey Casey, didn’t Angel tell you that everyone who still lives around here thinks the place is haunted?”

            “Yeah,” Casey said, lifting his mask and setting it on top of his head.  “Her grandma has a friend who lives nearby.  She told Angel ta stay away from the place ‘cause ever since the new owner bought it and decided ta tear it down there’s been all kinds of weird noises coming out of there at night.”

            “The police haven’t been called?” Don asked.

            “They been called all right,” Casey said.  “In fact, they’re getting ta where they don’t bother ta come out anymore.  Some historical group says the place should be renovated and preserved ‘cause somebody famous lived here once.  The guy that bought it is one of April’s regulars and he says the only way he’s gonna get his money back out of the place is ta demolish it.”

            “And the police think the preservationists are behind the strange noises,” Don guessed.

            “Ya’ got it,” Casey said.  “The owner says the police should go in and arrest somebody for trespassing but every time the cops show they can’t find anyone.  They don’t much like going inside ‘cause ya’ gotta stay on these planks they got laid down everywhere if ya’ don’t wanna fall through the floor.  The only time the neighbors hear anything is at night, so the cops can’t see shit when they do go inside.”

            “That means we ain’t gonna be able ta see shit either,” Raph griped.

            “Ever hear of an invention called a flashlight, Raph?” Mikey teased.  “We aren’t gonna be in there very long anyway, right Leo?”

            Leo was staring at the building, his sharp eyes running over every bit of the exterior within his view.

            Rather than answer Mikey’s question, Leo asked one of his own.  “You were supposed to meet the owner here today, Casey?  He didn’t call April to cancel and he didn’t show up?”

            “I waited around for three hours,” Casey told him.  “April kept tryin’ ta reach the guy but he never answered his phone.  Granted April don’t have ta call him that often, but he is one of her best clients and he has a crush on her.  He never misses one of her calls.”

            “But this time she bought something from him, right?” Mikey asked.

            “Yeah, she spent a pretty penny on it too.  Some kinda chandelier that’s hanging in the foyer.  He showed her a picture of it and she just so happens ta have another guy who’s been trying ta find one exactly like it.  It’s an antique and if ya wanna know more about it you’ll have ta ask April, ‘cause all I do is lug the stuff for her.”

            “So why don’t she wait until she can get hold of the building’s owner ta get her hands on that fancy antique?  Why are we down here in the middle of the night?” Raph asked.

            “The demolition crew is coming tomorrow ta rip this place down is why,” Casey said.  “The security guys wouldn’t let me in without the owner there ta say it was okay.  April don’t know what happened ta the owner, but she has a bill of sale for that chandelier and ya’ guys know how she gets when she wants somethin.”

            “There is also the little matter of strange noises coming out of that building at night,” Leo interjected.

            “What do strange noises have ta do with anything, Leo?” Raph asked.  “I thought we were here ta make sure Casey didn’t break his neck tryin’ ta rescue April’s junk for her.”

            “Do you remember where we were when we were battling Bishop’s fake aliens?” Leo asked.

            The abrupt subject change took Raph by surprise and he had to think about the question.  Donny answered it for him.

            “It was just a couple of blocks from here,” Don said.

            “There was a large contingent of Bishop’s creations trying to kidnap the president,” Leo recalled for them.  “During our fight we popped a lot of them and that goo they were made from seeped into the storm drains.”

            “And infected a whole lot of things, including Donny,” Mikey said.

            “Yeah, then Bishop sprayed the cure over the city and into the sewers,” Raph said.  “Problem solved.”

            “Suppose the cure didn’t make it into an abandoned, closed up house, but one of the infected creatures did?” Leo asked.

            “Ya’ think one of those things is holed up inside that house?” Casey asked incredulously.  “What would it eat?”

            Leo hadn’t taken his eyes off the house.  “A lot of people have gone missing in this area; Donny looked it up for me before we left the lair.  The owner of this house is now missing too.”

            “Oh shit,” Raph said, his voice low.

            “Bishop’s ruse happened quite a while ago, Leo,” Don said.  “The people started to go missing recently and the noises didn’t start until this construction work did.”

            “Maybe whatever it is was dormant,” Mikey said.  When they all looked at him, he asked, “What?  You guys like hibernation better?  Maybe all the moving around inside the house woke something up.”

            “Whatever is in there doesn’t seem to be able to get out,” Leo said.  “Or it doesn’t want to.  If the house is torn down it won’t have any choice but to leave and that puts the city in danger.  If it’s one of Bishop’s mistakes, it could start another epidemic.  People will die before Bishop recognizes what’s happening and sprays his cure again.”

            “So we’re going in there ta try ta find some monster that probably ain’t real friendly and destroy it?”  Raph asked.  “Sounds like fun ta me.”

            “We need to be careful not to spread the mutation again,” Don warned.  “Splattering something that’s mutated will lead to insects and rodents ingesting the infected remains.”

            “And then they’ll mutate,” Mikey finished for him.  “It’s a vicious cycle dude.”

            “That’s why I asked Don to bring some of our hunting gear from the last time we fought these things,” Leo told them.  “We need to capture it and put into a containment tube.  Don and Leatherhead built a duplicate of the one we had before.”

            “Uh, guys,” Casey interrupted.  “Ya’ ain’t forgettin’ that I still gotta find that chandelier for April right?  ‘Cause if I show up empty handed, she’s gonna slam the door in my face and I’ll have ta crash on your couch.”

            “No, no,” Raph said as he rushed into speech.  “We ain’t forgettin’ about April’s trinket.  Ya’ ain’t gonna have ta stay at the lair.”

            “That’s good, ‘cause all of your stuff’s always busted,” Casey said.

            “Let’s get over there,” Leo said.

            Scurrying down to the street, the group hugged the shadows as they waited for Don’s assessment.

            “No cameras,” Don said.  “Probably an expense the owner didn’t want to have.  The fence isn’t electrified and the posted security sign is from a company who drives by at intervals rather than leaving anyone on the premises.  We can scale the fence if you’ll cut the wire along the top, Leo.”

            “If I do that, your drive-by security guard will notice and call the police,” Leo said.

            “Jump over?” Mikey asked.

            “I can’t jump as high as you guys,” Casey reminded him.

            “Besides that, we still have to get anything that’s in there back out again,” Leo said.  “Donny can pick the lock on the gate and snap it shut behind us.”

            Digging into his duffel, Don pulled out a small kit and said, “Not a problem guys.”

            Leo signaled for the others to remain hidden and then he crossed the street with Don.  Squatting next to his brother, Leo kept watch while Don worked open the huge padlock on the chain that kept the gate closed.

            Once he had it open, Leo whistled lowly and the other three joined them, slipping through the gate quickly and moving into the shadow of the building.  Don secured the padlock in exactly the position he’d found it in and joined his brothers.

            “Are we going in the front door?” Raph asked.

            Leo shook his head.  “The street light shines directly on it and it looks warped anyway.  I don’t think anyone has gone through there in ages.  Let’s work our way around the side and find another way in.”

            Following him, the rest of the team crouched low, aware that they would be visible to anyone who drove past.  Weeds grew tall from what was once a manicured stretch of ground and the bushes that had been planted next to the house were overgrown and thick.

            The ground was littered with bricks and refuse that had been tossed through windows, making the area a veritable minefield for bare feet.

            “Watch your footing,” Leo warned them.

            “Thanks Fearless,” Raph grumbled.  “You’re so good at stating the obvious.”

            Near the back of the house a third story window stood wide open, a chute for garbage attached to it.  Leo contemplated the brickwork for a few moments and Don, as though reading his mind, tried gripping the bricks that stood out in an uneven pattern.

            “These seem fairly solid,” Don said.  “The ones near the roof will have worn more from exposure to the elements because the gutters are gone.  We should go slow.”

            “Looks like we’re climbing, Casey,” Raph said with a grin.

            “Great,” Casey replied, finding a handhold and beginning his ascent.

            Halfway up, one of the bricks under Mikey’s hand slid out of the wall and he lunged for another, digging his toes into the wall to keep from falling.  It was the only mishap and the five of them finally crawled one by one in through the open window.

            “If we locate a mutated monster in here, we’re going to have to find a better way to get it out,” Don said.

            “We will,” Leo said.  He was looking around the room they were in.  It was of a fairly good size and had probably been a bedroom at some point in its life.

            There was a layer of thick plywood on the floor, an obvious safety measure to prevent workers from falling through.  Raph stepped lightly across the wood until he reached an open door.  Glancing out all he could see was darkness.

            “Time ta bring out those flashlights,” Raph said, “’cause all I can see is a whole lot of nothing.”

            Don handed out the high powered flashlights he’d brought with him and the group moved out into the hallway.  Flashing their lights around the interior they could see that a central staircase rested between two long halls.  Doors stood open on both sides and planks had been set at intervals to ensure safe footing.

            Leo waved them to silence, signaling that Mike and Don would come with him while Raph and Casey were to go in the opposite direction.

            Remaining on the plywood walkway, the two teams moved away from one another, each playing their lights into the various rooms as they came to them.  Without their usual banter, the silence was eerie; there were no street sounds to break the dead weight of the quiet inside the old house.

            All of the rooms were empty; furniture long gone and most everything else stripped from the walls, including trim work.  Many of the rooms no longer had floors.

            Meeting back up at the top of the staircase, Leo asked, “Anything?”

            Raph shook his head.  “Nada.  Looks like they’ve done a lot of house cleaning up here; I doubt something trying ta stay unseen would be lurking around in these empty rooms.”

            “Somebody tell me why they’re ripping up the floors?” Casey asked, perplexed.

            “The old wooden floors that were built with the house are worth money,” Don explained.  “So is the old fashioned trim work around the doors.  The owner is salvaging everything he can before the house is torn down.”

            “Don’t tell April that,” Casey said.  “She’ll be after me ta drag some more crap back ta the shop for her.”

            “That crap keeps a roof over your head ya’ nut job,” Raph reminded him.

            “Let’s check the second floor,” Leo said.  “Same procedure; stay quiet.  I want to hear it before it hears us.  And watch where your step, the banisters are gone and the stairs are iffy.”

            Mikey had said nothing since they entered the house.  He was having a bad reaction to it, although the others seemed unaffected.  His skin felt as if tiny pricks of static were dancing all over him, and the oppressive silence made his ear drums hurt from the weight of it.

            Hoping that it was simply his imagination working overtime, Mikey followed Don as they moved single file down the dilapidated staircase.  They were careful to place their feet nearest the wall, where the risers would hold their weight.  It was also the one spot that didn’t creak as they descended.

            At one point Mikey’s arm brushed the wall and he jerked away so fast he nearly lost his balance.  The wall was squishy; rain had gotten inside and rotted the wood, giving mold a solid grip on the interior.  His mouth pulled down in distaste, Mikey knew the first thing he was going to do when they got home was to take a long, hot shower.

            The second floor was very similar to the first; except that facing the stairs was a wide opening that had once sported French doors.

            Don waved his flashlight through the opening and whispered to Leo, “Looks like the library.  They haven’t finished plundering this room and it’s pretty big.  Should we go in?”

            “How big?  Does it need to be searched?” Leo asked in a low voice.

            “There are free standing bookshelves on one side of the room and I can’t see around them,” Don said.  “Something could be hiding.”

            Leo glanced down the hall towards where Raph and Casey had just gone into a room.

            “You and Mikey go; stay together.  I’ll stand watch here to make sure nothing takes us by surprise,” Leo said.

            “No,” Mikey hissed sharply.  When his brothers looked at him, he said, “You guys have watched enough horror movies to know that the guy who stays by himself gets grabbed first.  We have to stay together.”

            “No one is going to grab me, Michelangelo,” Leo said.  “Someone has to stay out here to watch your backs and keep an eye on Raph and Casey as well.  If I see anything I’ll call out and you do the same.  Go on now.”

            Don touched his arm and started into the library, leaving Mikey with the decision to abandon Leo or let Don wander into a strange room by himself.  Setting his mouth into a firm line of disapproval, Mikey went in after Don.

            The planks didn’t quite reach the side of the room where the bookshelves were, so Don put one foot onto the original flooring, settling some of his weight on it.  When the floorboard creaked dangerously, he tried a different area until he found a solid spot.

            “Stay right behind me and follow in my footsteps,” Don told Mikey.  “I’m going to walk across on the floor joists; they’re still sound.  I know the spacing that was used so we should be fine.  Keep your eyes open.”

            “Okay,” Mikey said, holding his flashlight out to his side to illuminate their way.

            They spent several minutes walking through a small maze of bookshelves before concluding that nothing occupied the room other than spiders and water roaches.  One of the latter flew right at Mikey’s face when the light hit it, and Mikey batted it against the wall with his flashlight.  The resulted smack as it splattered made his stomach curl in on itself.

            “Let’s go back,” Don whispered, guiding Mikey towards the entrance.

            When they stepped into the hall, Mikey saw Raph and Casey coming towards them.  His grin of relief was cut short when Raph asked, “Where’s Leo?”

            Whipping around, Mikey realized that Leo had disappeared.

TBC…………….


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,850 Short story  
> Rated: PG-13 language

            Mikey spun completely around without seeing Leo anywhere.

            “I told you we shouldn’t have left him alone,” Mikey said in a loud whisper.

            “He was out here alone?” Raph asked, his hands going automatically to the hilts of his weapons.

            Don opened his mouth to say something, but a warning hiss cut him off.  The sound made Mikey shriek and jump two feet off the ground, his skin paling noticeably.

            “Keep it down,” Leo told them, stepping out of a room further down the hall.

            “Damn it, Leo,” Raph said, “ya’ like ta gave me a heart attack.”

            “That wasn’t funny dude,” Mikey admonished him.

            “You guys had better come take a look at this,” Leo said grimly, ignoring both of them as he edged back into the room.

            “What is it?” Don asked.  “What did you find?”

            The group followed a silent Leo into what appeared to have been the master suite at one time.  As he led them towards a door that was half hanging off its hinges, they could see splotches of a red substance scattered across their path.  It looked suspiciously like blood.

            Leo stepped carefully into the master bathroom and stood aside so the others could crowd in behind him.  The floor here was tiled and sturdier, braced to hold the heavy porcelain tub, but they were still careful to avoid all standing in one spot.

            Curled inside that large garden tub was a dead man.

            The body was desiccated and shriveled looking.  Lying curled up on his side, blood had run out of him and down the drain.  A large screwdriver was still protruding from his back.

            “Don, can you take a look and tell me how long he’s been dead?” Leo asked.

            Don moved over to squat near the tub.  “Initially I’d say quite a while, considering the advanced stages of mummification, although that makes no sense.  It’s not dry enough in here for this to have occurred; he should have putrefied and bloated first and that takes days.  The smell alone would have told workers he was here.

            “Decomposition could take as long as ten days if the air is chilled but then he’d bloat to twice his size and begin to turn green.  The body would have started to give off cadaverine before that and . . . .”

            “Donny,” Raph said, interrupting him.

            Don glanced up.  “Yes, Raph?”

            “We don’t wanna hear all that,” Raph told him.

            Blinking, Don grinned sheepishly.  “Sorry.  I can’t answer your question, Leo.  It really looks as though he died elsewhere and was dumped here.”

            “Then how do you account for all the blood?” Leo asked.  “There’s blood on the floor in the bedroom; in fact, it was a couple of drops of blood that drew me into the room to begin with.  And you can see that the tub is colored red underneath him; his blood was still flowing from several stab wounds while he lay in there.”

            Don reached into the tub and gently touched some of the blood.  “It’s still tacky.  This is recent.”

            “This ain’t the building owner ya’ were supposed ta meet is it, Case?” Raph asked.

            “Nope.  Never seen this guy before,” Casey said.

            “Hang on, his wallet is still in his pocket.  I think I can get it without disturbing his position,” Don said.

            “Careful Don,” Leo warned.  “We need to put everything back exactly as is for the police to find.”

            “Just make sure Casey doesn’t touch anything,” Don said as he worked the wallet loose.  “We don’t leave fingerprints, but he does.”

            “Hey, I ain’t interested in touching anything around this joint,” Casey said, backing up a step or two.

            “I found his identification card,” Don said after opening the wallet.  “Add some fluids to this guy and he matches the picture on it.  ‘Howard Da Silva’.  Credit cards, cash . . .  got some business cards here with his name on them.  They say he’s an estate appraiser.”

            “Well, that explains what he’s doing here,” Mikey said.  “He came to look at the leftover junk.”

            “Whoa.”  Don whistled as he pulled a slip of paper from the wallet.  “This is a taxi receipt.  It’s dated today.”

            “No way that’s his,” Casey said.

            “It’s tucked into his wallet.  Why would he hang onto someone else’s taxi receipt?” Don asked.  “Either way, it’s still dated today at ten a.m.”

            “When were you supposed to meet the owner?” Leo asked Casey.

            Casey was scratching the back of his neck, a nervous gesture on his part.  “At eleven.  The gate was closed and locked when I got here.  When a couple of those security guys drove up ta find out why I was hanging around, they said they hadn’t seen anybody go in.”

            “So the owner was supposed to meet an estate appraiser at ten and then stick around to deliver that chandelier to you,” Leo said.  “Something happened to both of them in that hour.”

            “I got a bad feeling about this,” Raph said grimly.

            “I’ve had a bad feeling about this ever since the first time we looked at this house,” Mikey said nervously.  “The air in here gives my goose bumps, goose bumps.”

            “Put everything back, Don,” Leo said.  “Then we need to find the building owner.  Maybe he survived whatever happened here.”

            Don shoved all of the items he’d looked at back into the wallet and then he slid the wallet into the dead man’s pocket.  Just as he was about to stand, a low rustling sound came from the body.

            Eyes wide, the group watched as the body shifted and then disintegrated into dust, wallet and screwdriver included.

            Donatello threw himself backwards, landing awkwardly on his carapace and ramming into Raph’s legs.

            “Sh  . . . shell!” Don exclaimed.

            “What the fuck just happened?” Raph demanded.  Reaching down, he caught Don’s arm and pulled his brother to his feet.  “Are you okay, Donny?”

            Don was staring at his hands, his mouth open but no words coming out.  Mikey quickly reached into Don’s duffel and yanked out a box of cleansing wipes, opening one of the packets.

            Reaching over, he began scrubbing first at one of Don’s hands, then the other.  Nobody said a word, watching as Mikey’s ministrations began to calm Donatello.

            “Oh m . . . man, I touched that,” Don finally stuttered.

            “You’re okay dude,” Mikey told him.  “Whatever happened to him and his stuff happened way before you touched it.”

            Raph still had a solid grip on Don’s arm, steadying him.  Don was breathing hard but past the initial panic; now he was trying to get over the reaction to the surge of adrenaline in his system.

            “Go back out to the hallway,” Leo ordered, his voice even.

            They needed no further urging, leaving the bathroom and bedroom behind in record time.  Raph was holding onto Don’s arm; his brother had a deer-in-the-headlights look to his eyes.

            In the hall, Leo stopped in front of Don.  “Don.”  When Don didn’t look up, Leo used a different tone.  _“Donatello.”_

            The command voice got his attention.  “L . . . Leo?”

            “I’m sorry bro’, if I had known I’d never have asked you to go near him,” Leo said.

            “I’m okay,” Don said, pulling loose from Raph’s grip.  “I touched it on my own, you didn’t ask me to do that.  I think Mikey’s right; whatever got him happened before I came in contact with his things.”

            “Do you have any theory at all as to what that something might have been?” Leo asked.

            Don took a deep breath, clearing his mind of the previous panic.  “Holding onto your theory about something mutating and coming to live in this house, the closest thing I could come up with would be a spider.  An injection of bile might account for the body’s desiccated appearance, and maybe the mutation changed the molecules so that anything bitten disintegrates.”

            “That doesn’t explain why someone used his back as a pincushion for a giant screwdriver,” Raph said.

            “Or why his wallet, that screwdriver and all his clothes disintegrated too,” Mikey added.

            “Maybe it spit at him or something,” Casey offered.  “Maybe he was trying to fight it off with the screwdriver and it took it away and used it on him.”

            “There are too many maybes and we still need to locate that missing man,” Leo said.  “There isn’t anything else up here; let’s make our way downstairs and see what we can find.”

            “I’d like to suggest we don’t split up anymore,” Mikey said.  “You know, strength in numbers?”

            “We’ll start out together,” Leo said grimly, “but if need be we’ll split into teams.  I don’t want to find out someone else died because we were too slow in getting to them.”

            Mikey knew that arguing the point was useless, so he kept his mouth shut.  This, he told himself, was exactly the reason why having a leader who was ‘Fearless’ was a big problem.

            The staircase that took them to the first floor was in even worse shape than the one they’d been on before.  Walking as carefully as possible, they went down it single file.  This time Leo did not have to remind them to stay silent.

            Near the bottom of the stairs, Casey’s shoe caught on a protruding nail.  With a loud shout, he stumbled and fell, crashing heavily to the floor.  The plywood sheet at the base of the stairs kept him from falling through to the basement, but his body weight made it slap the floor as it bounced under him.

            All of those sounds combined into a reverberating echo that reached to every corner of the bottom floor.

            Out of instinct the four turtles crouched into defensive stances, each turning to look in a different direction.  Casey stood up slowly, rubbing his knee and looking more than a little embarrassed.

            “Good one, Case,” Raph said under his breath.

            “Ya’ think I wanted ta fall down?” Casey hissed back.

            “Cut it and listen,” Leo whispered harshly.

            The group remained immobile for several long minutes, their senses on high alert.  Sounds came from the house itself; the groan of settling bricks, the creak of old wood, and the wind whistling through openings.  However, there were no unexplainable sounds at all.

            Slowly, the brothers eased their tense stance and surveyed the area they were in.  Directly in front of them and to their left were two large rooms and to their right was the front door.

            It opened onto a platform made of stone that extended several feet out and all the way to the walls in either direction.  The stone had an intricate pattern designed into it, with a large star in its center.  A coat closet, its door long gone, was near the entrance.

            “Isn’t that the foyer where the chandelier was supposed to be?” Don asked.

            Casey glanced up at the ceiling.  Nothing remained but some dangling wires.

            “I guess somebody took it down,” Casey said.  “It better be in here someplace or April’s gonna have a fit.”

            “I wouldn’t want anything that came from inside this house dude,” Mikey said with a grimace.  “I vote you tell her it wasn’t here and we leave while the going is good.”

            “Not until we see if anyone is still in here, Mikey,” Leo reminded him.

            Mikey made a face but asked, “Okay, so where do you wanna start looking?”

            Leo had been about to suggest they split up, but the expression on Mikey’s face and the residual fright left on Don’s made him change his mind.

            “Let’s check the big room in front of us first and then move on from there,” Leo said, leading the way.

            The room was on the side of the house where they had entered and had a long bank of windows along one wall.  The windows had been boarded up and the only thing to dispel the gloom was their flashlights.

            Other than plywood planks forming a walkway through the room, it was empty.

            “That’s what I love about a huge house; all kinds of space and ya’ ain’t got a clue what ta do with it,” Raph said sarcastically.

            His voice, though low, bounced off the walls.

            Don smiled.  “Acoustically sound, even in decay.  I’d guess this was a music room.  There was probably a piano in here at one time.”

            “Peachy,” Raph said, rolling his eyes.

            “My guess is that the other room we saw is the dining room,” Don said.  “After formal dinners, the woman usually excused themselves and left the men at the table with their after dinner cigars and brandy.”

            “That sounds way better than sitting around listening ta somebody bang on a piano,” Casey said.

            “There isn’t anything here,” Leo said, totally focused on their task.  “Let’s check the next room.”

            Moving out of the music room, the group stepped into the room to the left of the stairs.  This room was long and narrower than the other, sharing part of its wall with the music room.  Towards the back of the space the wall became windows; boarded up just as the ones in the music room had been.

            This room was also bare save for a plywood walkway and a gigantic broken mirror mounted on the back wall.  Mikey squatted near the edge of one of the planks and looked at the warped floor next to it.

            “I think Donny’s right about this being the dining room,” he said, pointing to marks in the old wood.  “This looks like the scratches you get from shoving a chair back.  See how the scratches are spaced?”

            While the others looked at the marks he was indicating, Leo moved to the other side of the walkway, inspecting a discoloration with an all too familiar look to it.

            “More droplets of blood,” Leo announced in a low tone.

            Mikey stood up slowly, looking all around the room before catching his reflection in the mirror and nearly jumping out of his skin.  He looked as distorted and bent as the house itself.

            Leo began following the blood trail and Mikey  couldn’t help the mental picture that came to him of a bloodhound.  His oldest brother was kind of like that; nose down and totally fixated on his task.

            Next to the mirrored wall was another door, still intact and partially closed.  The blood trail went through that opening and so did Leo, shoving the door with his shoulder and hip when it caught on the warped floor boards.

            The group found themselves in the kitchen.  Extremely spacious, the center island and most of the cupboards were intact.  In fact, the only things missing were the main appliances and a small dining table that had once inhabited a corner of the room.

            There was one big splash of blood near the island and there the trail ended.

            Dust layered everything in a thick coat, telling them that this room had been left alone by the construction crew.  A few planks had been scattered haphazardly across the floor, but since they were not placed in a workman’s fashion, it was obvious the kitchen wasn’t on anyone’s to-do list.

            Playing their flashlights around the dark space, they saw what appeared to be a walk-in pantry off to the right.

            “Come on Case,” Raph said, signaling with his flashlight.  “Let’s go check the food closet.  The damn place is bigger than my bedroom.”

            “Watch out for spiders,” Mikey couldn’t help saying.

            Raph’s growl echoed back to him from the inside of the pantry and so did Casey’s laugh.  Mikey chuckled, his good humor restored for the moment.

            Glancing around, he saw that Don and Leo had begun opening cupboards beneath the sink and countertops; any space large enough for a man to crawl into.  Mikey slowly opened one of the doors under the center island, remembering how things tended to pop out at people in the horror movies he liked to watch.

            The space was empty except for dirt, cobwebs and a foul odor.  Mikey slammed the door shut quickly and walked around to the other side of the island, coming to a sudden and complete stop.

            “Leo,” Mikey said, his voice catching as his throat tightened up.

            Leo turned around, caught by the sound of Mikey’s voice.  He saw that his brother was staring at something on the other side of the center island and that the sight had frozen Mikey in place.

            Touching Don’s arm to get his attention, Leo nodded towards Mikey and then moved over to stand next to his youngest brother.  Don called softly to Raph and Casey before joining the first two.

             A man’s body stuck partway out of a hole in the rotted floor.  He was bent forward, facing the back door, and his hands were stretched out in front of him.

            On the floor under his face was a large pool of blood and in his right eye was an exact duplicate of the screwdriver that had been stuck into the man upstairs.

TBC……………..


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,860 Short story  
> Rated: R language, gore

            “This ain’t lookin’ so good,” Casey said, his voice a touch higher than normal.

            Raph shot an exasperated look at him.  “Understatement of the year pal,” he growled.

            Leo paid no attention to them, his primary focus on his brother Donatello.  After the experience upstairs the last thing Don needed to see was a dead man who was missing an eye.  Some things just hit too close to home.

            Sensing Leo’s perusal, Don turned and said in a small voice, “I’m fine, Leo.  You don’t need to worry about me.”

            “He doesn’t look like the last one,” Mikey said in the same low tone he’d used when he found the man, pulling Leo’s attention back to the matter at hand.

            “Yeah, he ain’t all shriveled up,” Raph agreed.  “This guy looks like he just got killed.”

            “That’s the guy I was supposed ta meet,” Casey said.  “He’s the owner of this mad house.”

            Don touched Leo’s shoulder lightly so he could step past him, going over to squat near the body after first shoving a sheet of plywood next to it.

            “Careful, Don,” Leo warned.  “This one the police need to see in situ.”

            “Trust me, I am not touching him,” Don said grimly.

            “He must’ve died this morning right, Don?” Casey asked.  “’Cause he never came out and he knew I was waiting.”

            “I can’t be positive of that without a better examination,” Don told him.  “There are things like post mortem lividity and rigor mortis that would give us a more accurate time of death.  Without touching him, I can’t tell if he’s in rigor or passing out of it.”

            “Here.”  Raph grabbed a broom that was leaning against the wall and flipped it so he could slide the handle under one of the man’s arms.

            The hand and arm were completely stiff; none of the usual elasticity in the wrist or elbow.  With a look of disgust, Raph started to lower the arm back into place.

            “Wait!”  Don lifted his palm towards his brother and Raph froze.

            Leo stepped carefully forward, placing his weight so that it was balanced on the plywood with Don’s.

            “Donny?” Leo asked.

            “He wrote something,” Don whispered hoarsely.  “He . . .  he used his own blood.”

            On an unbroken section of flooring where the man’s hand had lain were the words _‘Destroy it’_.

            “Destroy it,” Leo read aloud.

            “Destroy what?” Raph demanded.  He let the man’s arm down, shifting it a little so that it no longer hid the words.

            “I think Leo’s right,” Casey said.  “I think one of them mutated things got into this house and it’s killing people.”

            “Yeah?  Then where is it?” Raph demanded.  “It ain’t like we been all that quiet.”

            Mikey spotted a pile of stuff near the back door and something near it caught his eye.

            “Casey, is that the chandelier you were supposed to get for April?” he asked, pointing towards the object.

            Casey looked where Mikey indicated.  Not far from the dead man lay a gleaming light fixture, the metal parts burnished gold.  It wasn’t large, only about three feet by three feet, with eight tear drop shaped lights inside candle holder type bases.

            Hanging from each of the eight arms were four pear shaped crystals and around the base hung sixteen more crystals, each suspended from chains woven with smaller crystals.  At the very center, dangling from a long crystal chain, hung a larger crystal.

            None of the crystals were of uniform shape or size, although the pear shaped ones came the closest.  The single crystal at the bottom might have at one time been perfectly round, but part of it had been shattered.

            “Oh shit, it’s busted,” Casey said with a groan.  “Ya’ guys gotta swear ta April for me that we found it that way.”

            “Forget the damn chandelier, Case,” Raph snapped at him.  “There’s a dead man right in front of ya’ and the dust from another one upstairs.”

            “They ain’t goin’ anywhere,” Casey retorted.

            “Neither are we until we find out exactly what happened in this house,” Leo told them.

            Don was contemplating the chandelier, his head turned slightly as he studied its position.  Standing slowly, he looked over at Mikey.

            “Mikey, hand me that plywood sheet next to you,” he requested.

            With a nod, Mikey grabbed the piece of wood and handed it across to Don.  Tossing it down near the chandelier, Don jumped lightly across and then kneeled next to the light fixture.

            Turning his head back towards the dead man, Don said, “I think he was carrying this when he fell through the floor.  If you look closely, you can see where the chandelier slid through the dust when he dropped it.”

            “He had a screwdriver through his eye, Donny.  Why the shell would he hold onto that thing?” Raph asked.

            Don was intent on the chandelier and didn’t answer.  Knowing his brother well, Leo signaled for silence as Don leaned forward and picked up the chandelier.

            “I thought we weren’t supposed to touch anything at a crime scene,” Mikey said.

            “Casey’s takin’ that with him when we leave,” Raph said.  “It ain’t got nothing ta do with dust corpses and screwdriver man here.”

            “Actually, it might,” Don said cryptically.

            He was examining the broken crystal, turning it so he could peer inside.

            “Don?” Leo asked softly.

            “There’s a red stone in here,” Don told him.  “It looks as though the round piece was layered over this one.  I’m . . . I’m not positive but it just might be a ruby.  A gemologist would have to verify that, but it gives off the light characteristics of a real gem.”  He reached up to touch one of the other crystals attached to the chandelier.  “I’m going to make a guess here that these are rough diamonds, not crystals.”

            “Are ya’ saying these two killed each other over April’s chandelier?” Casey asked.  “’Cause that’s what it sounds like your saying.”

            “Too bad, Casey,” Mikey said.  “That chandelier just became exhibit A.”

            “Not necessarily.”  Don was still gazing at the red stone.  “Greed doesn’t account for the dead man and his wallet both disintegrating.”

            “Or a man who is mortally wounded being on the complete opposite ends of the house from the man he supposedly fought with,” Leo said.  “Don, that screwdriver had to have penetrated through to his brain.  How long could he have continued moving?”

            Don didn’t answer.  He was turning the broken crystal between his fingers, staring at it with rapt attention.  Mikey watched as his genius brother began to pick at the crystal shards, uncovering more of the red stone.

            “Don,” Leo said.  _“Donny.”_

            The change in his voice yanked Don’s head around.  He blinked owlishly, his brow slightly furrowed.

            Mikey started to feel the oppressive weight of the surrounding air again and found it hard to breathe.  Leo had turned his flashlight towards the chandelier, and Mikey could almost swear the red stone was glowing.

            “Hey, Donny,” Mikey said carefully, “maybe you should leave that thing alone.  The police are gonna notice someone was trying to uncover more of that ruby.”

            “Oh,” Don said absently, as though just realizing what he’d been doing.  His fingers stopped their movement, but he didn’t release the ruby.  “What were you asking me, Leo?”

            Leo’s mouth compressed into a thin line.  “How far could this man really have gone with a screwdriver shoved inside his brain?”

            “If he’d already given his body the command to move, he could conceivably have made it out of the house and somewhere to get help,” Don said.  “Hundreds of people have walked into emergency rooms with things jammed into their heads.  The brain is still one of mankind’s biggest mysteries.”

            “He didn’t necessarily have ta be running away from the guy upstairs, Leo,” Raph said.  “They could both have been trying ta escape whatever turned Da Silva into dust man.  Maybe this guy took off before the thing could suck out his bodily fluids.”

            “This just keeps getting better and better,” Casey said.  “So what’s the verdict, do I take that thing back ta April or leave it here?”

            “We should take it,” Don said quickly.  He was looking avidly at the chandelier once more.

            Mikey was watching him, his body giving off warning signals.  Leo had turned his flashlight back to the dead man and Mikey could still see a dull glow coming from the ruby.

            “Until we’re sure those two weren’t just fighting over a fortune in gems, I think we shouldn’t play with that chandelier anymore.  Don’t you agree, Leo?” Mikey asked.

            The look he gave Leo was verging on desperation, though he wasn’t sure why.  All Mikey did know was that every instinct in his body said they shouldn’t touch the chandelier.

            “Mikey’s right on this one,” Leo agreed.  “Leave the chandelier where it is until we can figure out some more of this mystery.”

            Don nodded but didn’t move.  Raph and Casey glanced at each other and Casey shrugged.  Now it was Leo’s turn to frown.

            Hopping across to the plank Don was kneeling on, Leo reached down slowly and grasped the crystal chain between two fingers, carefully attempting to tug the ruby from Don’s hands.

            “I know this is interesting, Donny, but we still have work to do,” Leo said.

            One of Don’s hands curled tightly around the ruby while his other one swept up and clamped onto Leo’s.

            “Leave it alone,” Don snarled at his older brother.

            Leo remained where he was, his eyes searching Don’s.  “I’m not going to move it bro’.  We still have to search the rest of this floor and I’ll need your help.”

            “I just don’t . . . don’t want to leave it unguarded,” Don said.  “It’s worth a small fortune, Leo.  Think of all the things we could do with the kind of money this chandelier could bring.  I could build a real lab filled with state of the art equipment.”

            “I’m sure once April proves her ownership to the authorities, they’ll turn it over to her,” Leo said gently.  “She’ll be more than generous; she always has been.”

            “Could we hurry this up?” Raph griped.  “I don’t want ta spend the whole night in this fallin’ apart ruin.  Let’s go find somethin’ ta pound on and get the fuck out of here.”

            “Just leave it laying right there, Don,” Mikey urged.  “You can come back for it later.  I’m with Raph; the air in here is making me stuffy.”

            To emphasize his point, he sneezed loudly.  Raph growled at him, but the sound made Don’s head jerk to the side.

            Releasing his hold on Leo, Don slowly unfurled his hand from around the ruby.  Leo plucked it from his brother’s palm and gently set in on the floor.  He held it for a moment, watching as the glow from the ruby seemed to grow stronger.

            “Ya’ got some kinda plan, Fearless?” Raph asked.

            Letting the ruby go, Leo stood up and held a hand out to Don.  With a last look at the chandelier, Don grabbed the offered hand and got up.

            “There are more rooms on the first floor that we haven’t yet checked,” Leo said.  “I know Mikey hates the idea of our splitting up, but I think we’re at the point where we need to do just that.  As you mentioned, Raph, we haven’t been all that quiet.  It’s possible that someone in the area will report the sounds like they’ve done before.”

            “Maybe we should just leave now,” Don said.  “I can shove the chandelier in my duffel.”

            “Forget the damn chandelier,” Raph snapped.  “Geez, how much can it be worth?  It’s ugly as sin.”

            Ignoring them, Leo said, “Tomorrow this house is scheduled for demolition; you’d think those preservationists would be camping out here.  Isn’t that what they normally do?  The reports Donny found said in the last couple of week’s construction workers, transients, and a few others have disappeared in this neighborhood.  Angel told Casey the police find nothing when they come to investigate the reports about noises in the house.”

            “So?” Casey asked.

            “So the police wouldn’t notice a few extra piles of dust lying around in a dirty, abandoned house,” Leo said.

            The group grew silent as they grasped Leo’s point.

            “The house is eating them,” Mikey said.

            “It ain’t the house,” Raph said.  “It’s something in the house.  That’s your point ain’t it, Leo?  That’s why we gotta stay and solve this shit.”

            “Something in this house is responsible for at least two deaths and turning one body to dust,” Leo said.  “You can argue that they killed each other over the chandelier, but that still leaves a lot of missing people.  It’s just too much of a coincidence.  If the house is torn down and something deadly gets out  . . . .”

            “Okay, okay,” Raph interrupted.  “We got it.  I suppose we’re looking for big piles of dust now along with some mutated thing.”

            “You and Casey go back the way we came,” Leo directed.  “Mikey, Don and I will go through the door over on this side of the kitchen.  We’ll meet up at the foot of the staircase.  Keep your shell cell handy.  Donny, did you bring the stun guns with you?”

            “Um, yeah.”  Don had been staring at the chandelier but pulled his attention back to his brother when he heard his name.

            Digging into his duffel bag, he pulled out several large pistols.  “I modified them so they’re more compact and a lighter weight,” he said, handing one to each of the group.  “They shoot a wireless electro-shock projectile at a range of one hundred feet.  Each weapon has six projectiles, so use them wisely.  Oh and let’s be careful not to hit each other, ‘cause the voltage on these is pretty high.”

            “If you see a mutated creature, stun it, don’t engage in a brawl,” Leo said, mostly for Raph and Casey’s benefit.  “If for some reason the stun doesn’t work, get the shell away from it so we can re-group and come up with a new plan.  I don’t want anyone to expose themselves to something that could potentially turn them into dirt.”

            “We ain’t all that enthusiastic about joining dust man either, Leo,” Raph said sarcastically.

            Mikey looked back as he followed Leo to the side door off the kitchen.  Raph apparently saw the worried look on his face, because he gave his brother a lopsided smile and a thumbs up.

            Turning his head, Mikey saw that Don was also looking behind them, but not at Raph.  Don eyes were glued to the chandelier.

            The side door took the trio into a passageway.  There were shallow cabinets lining one wall, the rest of the space was narrow and passed alongside the dining room.  There was a door directly in front of them although the passageway didn’t end there; it then took a jog to the right.

            Leo opened the door and peeked out.  “It opens up right next to the staircase.  Let’s keep following the passageway.”

            Mikey was gripping his flashlight so tightly his hand was going numb.  Dampness had crept into the passage and mold had a firm hold on the woodwork, making everything smell incredibly rank.  Pointing his light at a baseboard, he saw tiny white insects scurrying in and out of holes in the wet wood, probably termites he told himself.

            There were no sounds other than their light footfalls and tiny clicking noises coming from inside the walls.  Mikey didn’t even want to guess at what could possibly be responsible for those sounds.

            Another doorway straight ahead of them was wide open mainly because the door itself was gone.  The room they stepped into wasn’t large, but it sported a deep fireplace and wood paneling, probably elegant looking at one time, now decayed and wormy.

            Staring around at the walls and the intricately chiseled mantel above the fireplace, Mikey asked in a hushed tone, “What do you think this room was, Don?”

            Before he received an answer, Leo started calling to them.  Mikey saw that his brother was squatting near a wall and he picked his way over to him, taking care where he stepped because there were no plywood sheets on the floor in this room.

            “What did you find?” Mikey asked.

            “From the length of it, I’d say a man,” Leo answered.

            A pile of dust lay stretched along the wall, the contours in the exact shape of a person lying curled up on their side.

            “Oh shell, Leo,” Mikey whispered.  “It’s another dead guy, isn’t it?”

            “I’m afraid so,” Leo whispered back.

            The silence was suddenly broken by a thumping sound and a loud hiss.  Mikey yanked the stun gun from his belt and Leo leaped to his feet, shining his flash all around the room.

            The flashlight revealed that they were all alone in the room.  Alone, just the two of them.

            “Donny?” Mikey called, his voice quivering.

            “Don,” Leo yelled a bit louder.  “Donatello!”

            They received no answer as the silence descended on them once again.

TBC………………….


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,663 Short story  
> Rated: R language, gore

            “Mikey.”  Leo’s tone was terse as he turned back towards the passageway.

            “On it,” Mikey said, his shell cell sliding into his hand in one practiced motion.

            Raph answered on the first ring.  _“What?”_   His voice was clipped, a sure sign that he was on edge.

            “Don’s gone,” Mikey said quickly.  “Leo and I are headed back to the kitchen.  Check the front and then meet us.”

            _“Shit!”_ Raph cursed before he hung up.

            Leo was moving fast and Mikey had to hop to catch up to him.  They paused once as Leo yanked open the door near the staircase, but all he did was take a quick look out.  Being thorough, Mikey knew, even though they both had a feeling that Don was back in the kitchen.

            Raph must have still been close to the kitchen when Mikey called him, because they heard his deep voice as they approached the kitchen door.

            “Dammit, Don!  What the fuck were ya’ thinking?  Ya’ scared the crap out of Leo and Mikey,” Raph said.

            Leo wrenched open the kitchen door, pulling it off its hinges in the process.  It hit the floor with a resounding bang, sending a dust cloud into the already gloomy air.  Mikey hoped it hadn’t landed on an unnoticed dust man.

            Casey appeared from the dining room side, his face wearing an anxious look.  Raph had apparently sent him to the front of the house while he took the back.  Splitting the search team was faster, but Mikey wished they’d stop doing that.

            Don was holding the chandelier tightly against his plastron with one arm; in the other was his stun gun.  He was pointing it at Raph.

            The tableau changed as Leo and Mikey plunged into the kitchen.  Mikey froze as Don turned the weapon towards them.

            Leo had his arms up, palms outward as he said, “What are you doing, Donatello?”

            “I have to protect it,” Don said querulously.  “Anyone could come in and take it while we’re searching the house.”

            Leo slid forward a step, moving slowly so as not to alarm Don further.  He used his toes to feel for the plywood bracing as he kept his eyes on Donatello.

            “Who do you think is going to come in here, Donny?” Mikey asked quietly, trying to draw Don’s attention away from Leo.

            Don’s eyes shifted to him.  “The preservationists could come,” he said.  “The p . . . police; they could walk in here through the back door.  They’d see the ch . . . chandelier and take it.”

            “Not with a dead man practically starin’ at them,” Casey said, seeing what Mike was trying to do.

            “Dead man?” Don asked, as though he’d forgotten a corpse was sticking halfway up through the floor only a couple of feet away from him.

            Leo managed to gain another foot before Don swung his weapon back towards him.

            “That’s Leo, dude.  Not some outsider you’re pointing that gun at,” Mikey said, shifting his feet to pull Don’s eyes off Leo.

            “He wants it too,” Don said.  “Can’t you see that, Mikey?  Leo wants the fortune.”

            Mikey opened his mouth to reply, but Leo beat him to it.  “Don’t you understand the security that chandelier would afford us bro’?  We wouldn’t have to fight the Foot all alone anymore; we could hire our own army. “

            Twisting his head to the side, Mikey stared at Leo in astonishment.  He hoped like shell that Leo was simply humoring his brother.

            “With the proper technology, I could rid the world of the Foot clan,” Don argued.  “Then I wouldn’t have to spend my time training and fighting; I could devote my life to research.”

            “Bushido is our code, Donatello,” Leo said, moving forward again.  “Our life is training and fighting.  Once the Foot are gone, other menaces must be dealt with.  That is where an army takes precedence.”

            “Guys,” Mikey said loudly, “that thing isn’t even ours.  It rightfully belongs to April.”

            He was watching Raph from the corner of his eye.  While Don was focusing his attention on Leo, Raph was inching towards the genius.

            “April won’t know what to do with it,” Don said.  “She’d sell it without knowing how much it’s worth.  She doesn’t need it.”

            “We don’t need it either,” Mikey told him.  “We get by just fine without being rich.”

            “It isn’t about being rich, Mikey,” Leo said.  “It’s about our safety.” 

            His eyes were locked on the chandelier in Don’s hands as he spoke and the knot in Mikey’s stomach jumped into his throat.

            “No, it’s about that chandelier,” Mikey corrected him gently.  “That thing is cursed dude.”

            “It’s about my being the leader and Donny not following commands,” Leo said sharply.  “Give it to me now.”

            Leo took a big step forward, his hands turned now so that he could grab the chandelier.  Don lifted his gun and fired at his brother.

            As he pulled the trigger, Raph leaped at him, yanking the chandelier out of his grasp.  Leo’s quick reflexes saved him; he jerked aside as the shock projectile flashed out of Don’s gun.  It passed within an inch of Leo’s shoulder.

            Don lunged for the chandelier, a grimace of rage painting his normally gentle face.  He grabbed one of the branches, trying to pull it away from Raph.

            Casey jumped into the fray; his hands closing on the chandelier as well.  Don brought his stun gun up, pointing it directly at Casey’s chest.

            The creak of the floorboards was loud in Mikey’s ears.  He reached down and plucked a plywood sheet off the floor, throwing it behind Raph just as his brother stepped back.

            “Stop fighting!” Mikey yelled.  “You’re gonna fall through!”

            Raph was in a rage and didn’t hear him, but Casey did.  As he looked down to see where he was, his eyes fell on Don’s gun and then widened.

            “Shit!” Casey yelled, turning aside but not letting go of the chandelier.

            Don’s gun turned with him.  Then Leo leaped forward and brought his hand down on Don’s wrist.  The gun flew out of his hand and hit the floor.

            With a grunt, Don dove for it and Raph twisted the chandelier out of this grasp.  Don’s fingertips touched the gun, pushing it further away from him and Don jumped forward to grab it.

            He landed on the rotten flooring and with a loud crunch, it gave way under him, sending Don and his weapon plummeting.

            “No!” Mikey shouted, nimbly leaping from one floor brace to the next until he reached the hole.

            “Fuck!” Raph yelled, retaining his hold on the chandelier as he balanced himself on a plywood sheet.  “Stop moving!”

            Casey froze, one hand still gripping the chandelier.  Leo was on his knees, peering into the dark chasm that had opened up and swallowed Donny.

            Another sickening crunch and the floor gave way around the dead body.  It too fell into the darkness.

            “Don!” Mikey called frantically as he shown his flashlight into the gloom.

            The blackness of the basement was complete; Mikey’s light couldn’t cut through the curtain of dust that rose up into the kitchen.

            “We gotta find the basement stairs,” Raph said.  “We gotta make sure he’s all right.”

            “Give me the chandelier,” Leo said; his voice dark with need.

            Rising up slowly, his eyes were fixed on Raph’s.  Twisting his upper body quickly, Raph was able to dislodge Casey’s hold on the light fixture.

            “We ain’t got time ta play games with this fuckin’ thing, Leo,” Raph growled at him.  “I’ll hold onto it while we search for Don.”

            Mikey’s heart was thumping in his chest.  Leo was staring with rapt avarice at the chandelier and Raph’s gold eyes were glowing fiercely.  Casey was also looking at the object, his tongue playing with his lower lip as he stared at it.

            “Holy shit you guys,” Mikey yelped.  Not given to cursing, the words were the only ones he could think of to convey his feelings.  “Now you’ve all touched that thing.  Look what it’s doing to you.”

            “I’m fine, Mikey,” Raph said.  “Don’s gone but I don’t see no reason why we should lose the chandelier too.”

            The ruby was shining brighter now; bright enough to make the diamonds begin to glow.

            “That chandelier belongs ta me and April,” Casey said shortly.  “If anybody is walkin’ out of here with it, it’s gonna be me.”

            Raph stepped away from him but kept his distance from Leo as well.

            “I don’t think so pal,” Raph said.  “Ya’ got a real life; it’s time for us ta have a shot at that too.  This thing is worth enough ta buy us a little social acceptance.  It’d be nice ta step out onto a city sidewalk in broad daylight and flirt with the ladies that are walkin’ by.  I could get me a real tricked out bike ta impress the chicks.”

            “Yeah, well I think it’d be swell ta own a hockey team,” Casey said.  “Makes more sense than your lame brain idea.  A hockey team would make more money for me.  April wouldn’t have ta sweat in that shop of hers anymore.”

            Mikey watched the byplay between the three, a feeling of near panic gripping his chest.  Don had fallen who knew how far and could be seriously hurt or . . .  or worse and there stood his brothers and Casey fighting over that chandelier.

            That chandelier was growing brighter by the minute.  Mikey had a pretty good idea now as to why the dead man upstairs had been all shriveled and desiccated.  If he didn’t do something, his entire family was going to wind up in exactly the same condition.

            Leo made the first move.  Pulling the stun gun from his belt, he pointed it at Raph.

            “I’ll take that now,” Leo said, his face twitching slightly.  “That chandelier is the key to the end of our clan warfare and it isn’t going to be used for buying motorcycles or hockey teams.”

            Mikey could see by the look on Raph’s face that he was going to put up a fight.  None of them was paying the slightest mind to the floor and if Mikey didn’t make some kind of move soon, they were all going to follow Don into nothingness.

            Bending his knees, Mikey leaped high, going for the island in the center of the kitchen.  His hands hit solidly and he pushed off, somersaulting towards Raph.

            His move was so unexpected that the trio only gaped at him as his foot connected squarely with the chandelier, kicking it out of Raph’s hands.  Mikey came down in a squat near the back wall, his feet securely braced on wooden planks, and watched the chandelier skitter across the plywood sheet Raph was standing on before it fell over the edge and into the hole in the floor.

            “What the shell did ya’ just do?” Raph yelled at him.

            “I got rid of that thing,” Mikey told him.  “Snap out of it you guys!  We have to find Don.”

            Leo jammed his stun gun back into his belt and dove out of the side kitchen door without a word.

            “He’s goin’ after the chandelier,” Casey said before rushing from the kitchen.

            “Oh shit, no ya’ don’t!”  Raph jumped off the plywood sheet, clearing the now gigantic hole in the floor and coming down in a dead run.

            Mikey stood up slowly, shaking with disbelief.  None of them had shown the least bit of concern over Donatello.  All of them had touched the chandelier and were completely obsessed with it to the exclusion of everything else.

            He’d touched it now too.  Mikey stopped for a moment and took stock of his feelings.  He had absolutely no desire to have anything further to do with the chandelier.  He didn’t want it, he didn’t want wealth; all Mikey wanted was his family in one piece and out of the house.

            Maybe it was because he’d touched it with his foot that he wasn’t infected with its curse.  The house owner had touched it with his hands though, and he seemed to have escaped its power somehow. 

            Mikey could see everything pretty clearly now.  The appraiser had touched the chandelier and been eaten up by the need to possess it.  The owner must have realized, just as Mikey had done, that the chandelier was cursed somehow and needed to be destroyed.  He’d fought with the appraiser and the two had basically killed each other.

            The appraiser died with greed in his heart and it had sucked everything that made him a person out of his body.  Mikey had no doubt that his life force was power to the chandelier.  The owner wasn’t sucked dry because he hadn’t felt greed; he was trying to do the right thing when he died.

            Just as Mikey was.  Looking around, Mikey saw that Don had left his duffel bag lying on the floor.  Digging around inside of it, Mikey found a pair of heavy welding gloves and shoved them into his belt.

            The others had a head start on trying to find a way down to the basement and Mikey knew he had to get there first.  If Don was hurt, they’d just ignore him as they went after the chandelier.  Mikey knew they’d kill each other to get it too.  Once that happened, they’d be part of the dust inside the old house.

            Locating a long coil of rope inside Don’s duffel, Mikey tied one end securely around the base of a solid support beam.  He slung Don’s bag over his shoulder and arranged a row of plywood sheets from the back wall to the edge of the hole.

            Taking a deep breath, Mikey placed his flashlight between his lips and holding tightly to the rope, lowered himself into the chasm.

            The flashlight was fairly useless, Mikey realized almost immediately.  The dust that was still floating around made the air similar to a fog filled night.  The beam from his light bounced back at him instead of cutting through the gloom.

            Mikey focused on his other senses, closing his eyes as he slowly descended.  He couldn’t hear the others yet but he knew they were coming.  With no idea how far down it was to the basement floor, Mikey could only estimate the depth, using his toes as feelers.

            He’d gone about twelve feet when he noticed he wasn’t breathing in dust anymore and opened his eyes.  The air had started to clear as the heavier dust settled and Mikey’s flashlight began to do him some good.

            The floor, he saw, was littered with broken boards and decade’s worth of discarded junk.  He didn’t see Don anywhere but knew his brother could be lying beneath one of the piles.  Mikey hoped he’d find Don still alive.

            As he drew closer to the ground, his eyes scanned the space for the chandelier.  He didn’t see it until his feet touched the pile of debris under him.  It was the strong glow of the red ruby that showed him where the chandelier had landed, partly buried by broken boards.

            Ignoring it for the moment, Mikey started shifting the rubble carefully while he searched for his brother.  He didn’t want to make a lot of noise and attract the others, but if Don was capable of talking, Mikey hoped he’d answer so that he could find his brother faster. 

            “Donny,” Mikey called softly as he worked, holding his flashlight in one hand and sweeping it in a circle.  “Don, are you hurt?  Can you answer me bro’?”

            He thought he heard a low, snuffling sound to his right and turned in that direction.  His flashlight caught a reflection as he moved and he swung it back around.

            The light bounced off twin shimmering circles just as something plowed full into his chest, knocking Mikey off his feet and throwing him down onto a pile of junk.

TBC……………………


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 3,666 Short story  
> Rated: R language, gore

            Mikey landed hard, his flashlight flying out of his hands.  The strap on Don’s bag slipped down and caught his arm, tangling him up as the weight on his chest turned into weight against his neck.

            The spinning flashlight came to a stop, its light shining towards Mikey’s feet.  It gave off enough illumination so that Mikey could see it was Donatello on top of him, his hands wrapped tightly around Mikey’s throat.

            “Do . . . .” Mikey choked out, but couldn’t say anything more as his oxygen was cut off.

            Frantically beating at his brother with his free hand was ineffectual; Don was nearly as strong as Raph.  Mikey’s eyes started to roll back and his vision blurred.  Donatello was going to kill him.

            His hand fell away and hit the pile of junk that was under him.  Curling his fingers around the first thing he could grab, Mikey brought his arm up with his final bit of strength and hit Don across the head.

            Don’s fingers were still clamped around Mikey’s neck as he keeled over sideways, pulling Mikey with him.  Twisting out of Don’s grasp, Mikey sat up quickly, shrugging the duffel bag off so he’d be free to fight.

            He didn’t need to; Don was out cold.  Mikey crawled up next to his brother and checked his vital signs, making sure he hadn’t cracked open Don’s skull when he’d hit him.  After ensuring himself Don was all right, Mikey sat back and took several deep breaths, lightly touching his sore neck.

            “Oh shell,” he muttered aloud, shaking in reaction to his close call.  Being killed by his own brother sounded like the worst possible way to die.

            Mikey didn’t have time to relax; he could hear the others coming.  They’d found a way down to the basement and were fortunately more intent on finding the chandelier than on killing each other.  For now.

            Jumping to his feet, Mikey darted to where he'd seen the chandelier and quickly pulled the debris away from it.  The fall hadn’t damaged it at all; none of the light bulbs was even broken.

            “Gotta be a way to destroy this,” Mikey said, still talking out loud.  “The crystal at the bottom cracked open somehow so that means it’s not indestructible.”

            Pulling a nunchuck from his belt, Mikey spun one end as hard and fast as he could, building up as much kinetic energy as possible.  Bringing it down it one smooth motion, he slammed his weapon against the chandelier.

            The end snapped back at him so fast he almost didn’t dodge it in time.  The nunchuck had rebounded off the chandelier, leaving the cursed object completely undamaged.

            Cursing under his breath, Mikey danced around the floor as he held his now numb arm.  Shaking it to bring the feeling back, Mikey tucked his weapon back into his belt and yanked out his stun gun.

            As the others drew closer, the chandelier’s glow became brighter.  Mikey decided that maybe it was electrically charged somehow and that the voltage from his gun could short circuit it.  Don had said he’d set the voltage pretty high.

            Taking careful aim, Mikey pulled the trigger.  The projectile flashed out and stabbed at the chandelier, ricocheting as it connected.  Mikey saw a white flash as though the chandelier was shielded and then he flung himself to the ground to avoid being struck by his own shot.

            “Crap!” Mikey shouted in a combination of fear and frustration.

            Rolling up to his feet, Mikey began anxiously looking for something that might be strong enough or heavy enough to break the chandelier.  That’s when he heard Donny groan.

            Mikey also heard Raph shouting obscenities and he knew he was out of time.

            Snatching up Don’s bag, Mikey drew the welding gloves out of his belt and pulled them on.  He tossed the duffel next to the chandelier and then carefully picked up the light fixture, making certain it didn’t come into contact with his body.  Mikey figured he’d already tempted fate once and that was more than enough.

            Stuffing it into the bag, Mikey zipped the duffel closed and slung it over his shoulders just as the light from a set of approaching flashlights started to swing around inside the basement.

            “M . . . Mikey?” Don stammered.

            Mikey glanced around and saw his brother was sitting up, one hand on his head where Mikey had hit him.  Moving fast, Mikey pulled off the gloves and jammed them into his belt.  Then he grabbed the end of the dangling rope and began to pull himself up hand over hand.

            “No!  Bring it back!” Don yelled after him, stumbling as he tried to scramble to his feet atop the pile of junk.

            Three forms came barreling out of the darkness, racing towards him as he climbed.  Mikey caught the end of the rope between his toes and flipped it up, catching it in his left hand just as Raph jumped at him.

            “Dammit, Mikey!  Ya’ can’t have it!” Raph yelled, so furious his voice cracked.

            Mikey saw a flash of light reflect off steel and looked down to see Leo pull one of his swords.  Wrapping the excess length of rope around his hand, Mikey lunged upwards, desperate to stay out of Leo’s reach.

            If his brother’s had been anywhere near normal, they would have worked together to reach him, but they weren’t thinking as a team.  Each of them wanted the chandelier for themselves, the others be damned.

            Mikey managed to hoist himself out of the reach of Leo’s katana and Don’s bo staff, but then Casey remembered his stun gun.

            Drawing the weapon, he fired it at Mikey without even a warning shout.  Mikey saw the gun come up and swung his body out of the projectile’s path.  The motion caused the rope to snap against the plywood sheet closest to the hole in the kitchen floor and the sheet popped out of place.

            As the rope dragged through the broken boards, Mikey plummeted back down towards his brothers.  Frantic, he began clawing his way up as fast as he could climb, all the while hearing his pursuers shouting at him.

            The rope finally caught on a floor joist and held, coming to a stop so suddenly it nearly shook Mikey from his perch.  Chest heaving, Mikey tightened his grip and looked down.

            He could see Casey attempting to target him again and then Raph got the same idea, bringing his hand up with the stun gun in it.  Without taking time to think about it, Mikey pulled his own gun and began to shoot.

            Casey took a direct hit to his chest and fell quivering to the ground.  Raph caught a projectile to the shoulder as he tried to fire his own weapon and he dropped first to his knees; then fell forward onto his plastron.

            Leo whirled aside and Don threw himself backwards, but not fast enough to avoid being hit in the thigh.  He landed amongst the broken boards, his shaking sending them clattering in several directions.

            Mikey’s oldest brother was fast, but Mikey had practiced shooting at moving targets in too many video games.  He led Leo as his brother dashed towards the protection of darkness and then fired, scoring a perfect hit on Leo’s shoulder.

            Verifying that they were all down, Mikey pulled himself the rest of the way up, crawling out of the gaping hole on his hands and knees.  He tossed the rope aside and then lost his composure for a moment.

            Trembling, Mikey braced himself with a hand against the wall.  Still on his knees, he took several deep, measured breaths to steady his response to the adrenaline flowing through his system.  Not knowing exactly how much time he had before the others recovered, Mikey got to his feet.

            Mikey knew he had to destroy the chandelier.  The house owner knew it even as he lay dying, trapped and unable to move he’d still left a message telling them, telling _Mikey_ , what to do.

            The man was obviously trying to take it out of the house, but Mikey didn’t think that was the answer.  That cursed chandelier had been a part of this house for who knew how long, probably purchased and installed by the long ago wealthy man who’d built the house.

            Leaving the house with it would subject even more people to its allure and it wouldn’t break the spell that the thing had on his family and Casey.  It had to be destroyed once and for all.

            There was nothing in the kitchen that Mikey could use to try and break the chandelier, but he remembered seeing construction tools in the foyer.  Running as fast as he dared, Mikey headed for the front of the house.

            He found the tools lying near the base of the stone entry and noticed right away that the screwdrivers they’d found buried in both corpses matched the set lying on the floor.  More than likely the owner had been hired to take the chandelier down and had wound up as one of its first victims.

            Mikey dropped the duffel bag on the floor and put the welding gloves on again.  Leaning over, he extracted the chandelier and set it next to the tool kit.  Picking up a hammer, he spun it so the claw end was facing the chandelier and caught the dangling crystal chain between the prongs.

            Holding the chandelier down with one gloved hand, Mikey yanked back with the hammer, trying to snap the chain.  Gritting his teeth, he pulled with every bit of strength he had, but the chain held firm.

            With a cry of frustration, he spun the hammer around and began pounding on the chandelier.

            “Break, break, break, damn you!” Mikey yelled as he swung the hammer, but all it did was bounce off without leaving even a scratch.

            Throwing the hammer down, Mikey sank to his knees next to the chandelier and panted.  Panic was trying to crawl into his throat and he swallowed it; giving up now spelled doom for his entire family.

            “Stupid fucking cursed piece of shit,” he murmured, using Raphael’s technique for venting his frustration.  It actually made him feel better and he chuckled; then he started laughing.

            Mikey bit his own lip to stop what had almost become hysterical laughter.  He’d indulge himself later; right now he had to think.

            “Okay, Mikey,” he said to himself.  “What do you remember about cursed objects from all those movies you’ve watched?  Besides the fact that they’re dangerous and usually kill people.”

            He mentally ran through a huge list of movies he’d seen on the subject and realized that the one thing they had in common was that the original owner of the object usually knew how to control it.  They knew how to use it for personal gain without being affected by its power.

            The original owner of the chandelier had hung it in his foyer.  That was helpful.  Not.

            Mikey frowned and looked up at the ceiling where the chandelier had been hanging.  There was nothing else up there except a smooth expanse of plaster and the wires that had held the thing in place.

            And then Mikey looked down.  Down to the section of stone over which the chandelier had been suspended.

            Getting up slowly, Mikey stepped up onto the entry and approached the star that had been designed into the stone.  Up close, he saw it wasn’t a star; it was a pentagram.

            “Holy crap,” Mikey muttered.

            Around the edges he saw fragments of broken glass and knew immediately that it was from the crystal ball that had been covering the ruby.  The workman must have nearly dropped the chandelier as he brought it down from the ladder, and the ball had hit the pentagram.

            Hitting the pentagram had broken the unbreakable chandelier.

            Something was written at each of the points of the star.  _‘Negatus Avaritia Ut Operio Avaritia’_.  It looked like Latin to Mikey, but Don was the only one capable of reading it, and he wasn’t available.

            Mikey had turned back towards the chandelier when loud noises drew his attention.  Looking up, he saw his brothers and Casey rushing straight towards him.

            With no time left, Mikey dove for the chandelier and snatched it up.  Leo was almost on top of him as Mikey twirled aside, nearly tripping on the stone step.

            A snarl to his right warned him to dodge as Raph lunged at him and he saw Don pulling his bo staff out as he leaped onto the stone entry.

            Casey’s golf club was in his hands and he was bearing down on Mikey from a fourth direction.  Surrounded, Mikey threw himself to the ground and slid into the center of the pentagram.

            As soon as the chandelier touched the star, the ground started to shake.  A bright yellow light stabbed its way up through the outline of the star and a blast of air hit Mikey hard enough to send him flying backwards.

            Mikey’s shell slammed into the front door and he lay stunned as he watched the chandelier rise up three feet into the air.  The pentagram opened up beneath it, a loud roar accompanied a vacuum that was so strong Mikey had to brace himself to keep from being pulled in.

            He looked around for his brothers and Casey; fearful that they would be sucked into the hole, but saw that all four of them were frozen in place as they faced the chandelier.

            Thick red glowing tendrils shot out of the ruby and wrapped themselves around the mesmerized foursome.  Mikey could see that the vacuum was trying to take the chandelier into the depths of the opening, but the chandelier was fighting back by holding onto its captives.

            Mikey knew right away that his friend and his family were feeding the chandelier with their energy.  As long as they held onto their greed, they were fodder for the curse.

            The wind whipped around Mikey as he held himself against the wall.  His brothers and Casey stood on four sides of the chandelier, rigid and unmoving as tentacles of pure power held them.

            Mikey could see that it was draining them to keep itself afloat.  The vortex inside the opening in the stone platform continued to churn, pulling loose objects into its bottomless pit.  While the chandelier held its four captives in its grip, it was too powerful for the spinning winds.

            “Leo!” Mikey shouted above the roar.  “Please, Leo, let it go!  All the money in the world is meaningless if you don’t have anyone to share it with!  Remember what you told me; the only thing we have in this life is each other!  It’s trying to kill us!  Turn away from it!”

            He thought he saw Leo’s stance shift and he tried one more time, “Leo, save us!”

            Leo’s eyelids moved and then closed.  He blinked twice and then his eyes cleared.  With an effort, he slowly began to turn, fighting the tentacle that was trying to keep him in place.

            As he turned his back on the greed that was holding him, the tentacle dropped away from his body, winking out of sight.  The chandelier seemed to tip sideways then, its grip lost on one of its foundations.

            Mikey turned his attention on Raph next.  “Raphael, listen to me!  You are stronger than this thing, stronger than anything!  Remember Mrs. Morrison?  Money doesn’t mean anything to you; helping people does!  The chandelier wants to hurt innocent people!”

            Raph mouth shifted into a snarl, his teeth showing.  With narrowed eyes, he twisted first to one side and then the other before wrenching his body away from the tentacle.  With his back to the chandelier, the cursed object lost its second anchor.

            “Casey!  Remember your dad!  He fought the protection racket; he hated greedy, evil people!  Evil people like Hun!  Don’t turn into Hun!  Don’t let your father down!”

            Casey tipped his head back as Mikey’s words reached him.  Letting out a long, drawn out shout of rage, Casey threw his arms into the air and spun away from the chandelier.

            One last tendril held on, its grip on Donatello tight.  The chandelier was halfway into the hole and the tendril around the genius brightened perceptibly.  Mikey knew it was going to burn Don out completely if he couldn’t think of a way to free him.

            Thinking fast, thousands of instances of Donatello’s selflessness came to mind, but he just needed one.  One that had made a big impact.

            Sitting up as tall as he could, Mikey yelled, “Donny!  Remember Sydney?  Remember the crystal moon and the lone survivor?  He lied to us and he tried to hold Sydney and her friend’s captive!  He lied because he was greedy; he wanted all of us to be his slaves!  Remember how you promised to save Sydney?  Remember how she cried when you did save her?”

            Mikey saw Don’s fists clench and his jaw start to work from side to side as he ground his teeth in concentration.  The chandelier began to wobble; its last tendril fading in color while Don fought its power.

            “Let me go!” Don shouted, stepping backwards and jerking against the tendril.

            It released him with a loud pop and he quickly turned his back on the cursed object.

            The house began to shake harder then, bits of plaster and rotting wood raining down from above them.  The chandelier spun like a top, the glow from its gems creating a kaleidoscope along the walls.

            And then it fell into the golden light from below.  As soon as it disappeared from sight, the stone floor snapped back into place and the vortex stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

            Mikey slid along the door and onto his side, breath gusting into his lungs.  Exhausted, he could only look over to where his brothers and Casey were, watching as each of them fell to the ground.

            With an effort, he asked, “Are you guys okay?”

            Leo pushed himself upright, turning towards his youngest brother.  “I’m all right now, thanks to you.  Are you hurt?”

            Mikey bent his knees and tried to stand up, wincing at the pain in one of his ankles.  “I think I sprained something, but I’m fine.”

            Raph got up and made his way over to Mikey, grabbing onto an arm and pulling him to his feet.  He put a shoulder under Mikey’s arm and helped him walk to where the others were standing.

            “Oh Mikey,” Don said, “I’m so sorry.  I don’t know what came over me.”

            “Forget it dude,” Mikey told him with a grin.  “Cursed objects have that kind of power.  None of you should blame yourselves for getting caught by it.”

            “But you didn’t,” Leo said.  “It made us want all kinds of material things and you would seem to be a  . . . a . . . .”

            “Prime target?” Mikey finished for him.  With a laugh he said, “Yeah, I’d love to have all of the latest video games and a few rare comic books and stuff like that, but all of that is pretty trivial compared to what you guys wanted.  You just want us to be completely safe, Leo, that’s a pretty strong wish.  And Raph doesn’t want to feel like an outcast in his own city; wanting to walk around in the sunshine doesn’t seem like too much to ask for.

            “Casey wanted security for himself and April, and a little fun in his life.  And Donny, you just wanted to live the dream of being able to work in peace and then share your discoveries with the world, making everything better for everyone.  That chandelier grabbed onto the best parts of you guys and twisted things by offering you an easy way to your goals.”

            “But I still don’t understand why it didn’t get ya’,” Raph said.

            Mikey held up his hands, still covered by the gloves.  “Well, these helped.  I watched enough movies to know not to touch the thing.  I guess my being the youngest and having the least feeling of responsibility makes me pretty content with life the way it is.  I don’t really want anything that I don’t already have.”

            The ground under their feet shook hard at that moment, almost throwing them all down again.

            “I don’t think this place is gonna stay up much longer,” Casey said.

            Don swooped down and grabbed his duffel bag as Leo led the way back towards the kitchen.  Raph held onto Mikey, helping him stay off the ankle that had already begun to swell.

            Circling the hole in the kitchen floor, Leo kicked the back door open and held it as Raph pulled Mikey through.  Don followed quickly, but Casey ducked to the side, digging into the pile of stuff that was against the wall.

            “Come on Casey,” Leo called as the house shook again and the upper floors began to cave in.

            Casey jumped through the doorway and Leo ran out behind him.  The five of them rushed to a side fence and Leo cut an opening for them to squeeze through as the house began to collapse.

            On the other side of the street, they watched the walls and roof fall in.  The sound of sirens in the distance told them someone had called the fire department.

            “What did you go back for?” Leo asked Casey.

            Casey grinned and opened his hand.  He was holding three glass doorknobs.

            “Not worth as much as that chandelier,” he said, “but at least I ain’t going back empty handed.”

            As they headed towards the nearest manhole cover, Mikey looked up at Raph and grinned.

            “Hey bro’, you know my favorite thing about a haunted house?” Mikey asked.

            Puzzled, Raph said, “Nope.  What is it?”

            “Getting out of it,” Mikey told him.

THE END


End file.
